The Choice
by My blue rose
Summary: Upon his death at the hands of Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi finds he has a choice to return and attempt to alter his past in order to change his future. But being a 12 year old Temple initiate again wasn't quite what he had in mind we he agreed to this. AU time travel.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: I Return**

It is both easier and harder for Obi-Wan Kenobi to stand before his former apprentice then it was almost twenty years ago.

This Anakin, this _Lord _Vader, is a walking mass of black metal nothing like the handsome young man he was. But the hate and hostility he can sense is all too familiar. It has haunted his dreams for nineteen long years. And yet it is not the wild, untempered anger of youth but cold with age and experience. It burns like ice in the Force.

He knows from the first exchange with their lightsabers that he is going to lose. Vader may be slower, encased in a metal shell, but age and austere living in the harsh environs of Tatooine have robbed him of most of his strength and stamina. It was been years since he last ignited his saber, while his former apprentice has used those years to turn the heavy armor into blows that rattle his teeth and make his joints ache.

He finds that his impending death does not bother him as much as he thought. All he has to do is stall long enough for Luke and Leia to get off the ship. He is mildly surprised at his confidence in a boy not even half trained and an irascible Corellian spacer but he can sense through the Force that they will succeed, although he is not certain of the details.

"If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can imagine." He intones.

He almost wants to laugh. That is something his master might have said. He can hear blaster fire in the distance and feel Luke's Force presence nearby. As the red lightsaber raises Obi-Wan knows this is the end. He feels remorse that Luke will see his death. The death of his master had devastated him and he would not wish the same on the boy. As the final blow comes he glances at Luke, whose eyes are wide with horror, and a small smile graces his face.

_I wish I could have more time to train you. You are everything your father should have been. Farewell and may the Force be with you._

The blade fell and he knew no more.

* * *

He was standing on the edge of the Jundland Wastes, staring at the horizon. The rising twin suns turned the sky a brilliant orange and yellow with streaks of crimson. A warm breeze caused his brown robe to flutter about his ankles and carried the baked smell of the desert. This was the best time of day, when the suns chased away the chill of the night but before they had fully risen to their scorching heights.

"It has its own beauty, doesn't it?" a deep, mellow voice to his right said.

Obi-Wan flinched, turning to stare at his companion. It was his old master dressed in a brown cloak and beige tunic nearly identical to his own. What's more, he was not the transparent figure that had periodically appeared to him, like a life-sized hologram. He was solid and looked exactly as he remembered him. Neatly trimmed beard and a long mane of hair liberally streaked with gray and his Force presence blazed like the suns.

"Master?" Obi-Wan looked around him. There was nothing but the soft roll of sand dunes and, far in the distance, the outlines of vaporators that marked the outermost boundary of the Lars homestead. He turned back to his master.

"Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are?"

"Home," the reply was automatic, and in a way it was right. He lived in a small house a little over the ridge of sandstone to the south. In his fifty-seven years it was the only place he had stayed for so long a time. Not even his quarters at the temple had been occupied as much or as cared for.

"Always a good place to be. Come, sit down." He gestured to a small table and two chairs that Obi-Wan was almost certain had not been there moments before. Feeling completely out of his depth, he sat down and watched Qui-Gon do the same.

"Where are we?"

"Your home. I thought we'd already established that." There was a trace of amusement in his tone that made Obi-Wan sigh in exasperation.

"Patience! In truth what you are asking doesn't make sense. We are incorporeal spirits and beings in the immaterial realm do not have location in space-time. Asking where we are is rather like asking how much the color blue weighs. It is a category error and the wrong kind of question."

"Then I truly am dead." He said, grasping at the one thing he understood from his master's explanation.

"No, your body is dead. You are very much alive. Would you like some H'kak bean tea?" Qui-Gon lifted a teapot and poured the orange liquid into two cups that Obi-Wan was definitely certain had not been there seconds before.

His sipped the hot, refreshing tea for several moments before asking "Why are we here?"

"Ah! That is the right kind of question. We are here because you have a choice to make. It doesn't happen very often. This is the first time in a thousand years it has been allowed. It is a great honor."

"What kind of choice do I have to make?" Qui-Gon seemed more relaxed and less reserved than he had been. Throughout their conversation he had not lost his faint smile. It was this, more than whatever possible choice he had to make, that filled him with trepidation.

"Whether to return to the physical world or not."

"I can go back?"

"Not as such. You can return to your body only at a certain predetermined point. I cannot tell you when that will be. It is part of the choice."

"Cannot or will not?" Qui-Gon only smiled and drank his tea.

"You said it was a choice. That means I have another option?"

"Yes. You can stay. There are others whom are eager to speak to you. Only those whose have studied the way of the Whils can interact with the corporeal realm, albeit in a limited manner, but everyone you have known whose body has perished can communicate with each other if they wish."

"I can talk to others, right now?"

"Yes, but that would mean you have made your choice to remain with us."

Obi-Wan was silent, watching the suns which never seemed to get any higher, deep in thought. Stuck in a perpetual sunrise with his master and others he had lost did not seem a terrible fate. And yet if he returned…

"I could change things. If I returned,"

"That is rather the point, yes."

"Then I would still remember what will happen."

"What _might_ happen. The future will be in motion from the moment you return. The ripple you cause will affect more than you can predict or control."

"What do you think I should do?"

"I do not know as it is not my life you are returning to. But if I were you…" he trailed off. "I'm not supposed to influence your choice. Both are good in their own way. Both are hard but for different reasons. But if it were up to me, I think you know what I would do."

"Then I will return."

The beautiful morning dissolved around him into blackness and he hears, as if from far away, a laughing voice say "Good choice!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Sometime Around Midnight**

Obi-Wan opens his eyes to complete darkness. Gasping, he realizes he is lying on a padded surface and bound tightly with what feels like cloth. For a moment, panic grips him and he struggles violently, seeking to free himself. He falls from a ledge down to the ground a meter below with a painful thump and a cry of surprise. Lights momentarily blind him and he blinks, untangling himself from what turns out to be blankets, his hazy memories coalescing.

He had been killed by Vader. Then he had been…_elsewhere_… with his master. Who had given him a choice.

He looks about the small room—humanoid sleeping quarters it seems—with its white carpet floor, smooth metal walls and a faint humming noise. There is a bed in the recessed alcove behind him that has the room's only window. Through it he can see bright lights against a dark cityscape. Across from him there is a chair tucked into a table set against the wall that is stacked with neat piles of datacards, Flimsiplasts and Holobooks.

To his right is a door by which two small brown boots are placed. The wall to his left has hooks upon which hang several white tunics and a lightsaber. Below these, on the floor, are several sets of carefully folded trousers atop of which sit a coiled belt. Sensing that the humming sound he's been hearing is coming from above him, he glances up to find three model Verpine fighters hovering near the ceiling, their running lights flashing green and purple.

Obi-Wan stands up, kicking the blankets aside then looks around once more, noticing something he hadn't before. There is something wrong with this room's proportions. It takes him a moment to understand what it is. Everything in the room is about twenty centimeters too tall, from the height of the desk to control panel on the door. Shaking his head in confusion he walks over to the wall and grasps the saber. It does not feel quite right; it is not his beloved saber he has been using for over twenty years. And yet… it was _familiar_, somehow.

A memory he had thought forgotten stirs. He had built this lightsaber when he was an Initiate in the Jedi Temple! He looks at the hands holding the handle and they are not the wrinkled, scared hands of an old man accustomed to long labor in the unforgiving deserts of Tatooine. Instead they are untanned, with well trimmed nails and smooth save for a ring of swordsman calluses on the palms. The hands of a child.

Realization hits him like a bulk freighter.

He exits the room into a dimly lit hallway. His bare feet seem to echo loudly against the dark stone floor as he finds the door he is looking for near the end of the corridor. It is the refresher for the older Initiates who lived in the dormitories. The lights turned on as soon as he enters, revealing a room with gleaming metal shower and toilet stalls and white tiled walls and floor.

Initiates were not encouraged to look at their appearance more than what was necessary for cleanliness because it was thought to encourage to vanity. So the only mirror to be found in the Initiates area of the Temple accommodation sector was the small round one above the sink nearest the door. Obi-Wan stares at the strangers refection that he is certain is his own.

He sees stormy blue eyes that are wide with surprise and hold a hint of fear. Hair that is close cropped except for a strand, long enough to braid, growing out behind his right ear. It is the face of an Initiate who hopes to soon be chosen as a Padawan. He traces his face, which still has some lingering baby fat in the cheeks, with a thin finger and stops over a painful, red bump.

Ah, the joys of adolescence. He cannot help the wry thought or the laughter that follows it. Yes, Qui-Gon_ would_ find this situation amusing.

He looks away suddenly, aware of someone approaching though the Force. Several moments later a Rutian Twi'lek enters, dressed in a loose grey sleep tunic and pants. He recognizes her, though it has been decades. Docent Vant's leather headdress is absent and her lekku are draped around her shoulders. She had been his biology instructor as well as overseeing the older Initiates. Her body had been found defending a group of younglings after Vader's purge. He looks away, blinking back tears, a roil of emotion in his gut. Why does he feel like this? It's not as though he was close to her. He hasn't even spoken to her since he was twelve. He flinches slightly when she puts her hand on his shoulder. It has been many years since he has had such casual contact with people.

"I sensed a disturbance. What is the matter, youngling?" he gapes at her, struggling to find words.

"I… you died. Everyone died. It was all my fault. I should have stopped it." He mutters a Huttese curse in his mind. That had not come out as he intended.

"Obi-Wan, you are old enough not to give credence to nightmares. They come from your own fears. You must acknowledge your fears, accept them and then you must allow yourself to move on."

"It wasn't a nightmare! It really happened. Or… it will happen…" he trails off considering the implications.

"Child, it seems like you are having visions. But do not place your faith in them. The future is always in motion. Meditate on what you have seen and what you can learn from your experience but do not dwell upon what you cannot control. Focus instead on what you can change. Let the Force guide you."

Obi-Wan smiles and gives her a low bow. "Thank you for your wisdom Master Vant. I will return to my quarters to meditate on what I have seen."

Docent Vant's headtail twitches in surprise, but she smiles, showing her pointed teeth and walks him back to his room.


End file.
